


When Life Gives You a Clowder

by agentx13 (rebelle_elle)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Multi, m/m/f, sharon carter appreciation month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6184852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelle_elle/pseuds/agentx13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam isn't a cat person, but these kittens need SOMEONE to look out for them. Steve and Sharon aren't cat people, either, but if Sam is taking them in...</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Life Gives You a Clowder

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: “I may have accidentally sort of adopted five cats.” OT3 PLEASE. OT3 AS IN SHARON, STEVE, AND SAM. (ignore my shouting, I just pictured the three of them sitting in the couch surrounded by cats)

Sam, for all that he likes birds, is the first one to fall head over heels for a kitten. All it takes is a couples mewls coming from beneath a bush and the sight of a kitten with its fur sodden from rain, and he’s a goner. He takes the kitten home, dries it off, and, when Steve visits that evening for a night of modern movies, shoves the kitten into Steve’s oversized hands. “Hold him and keep him warm while I get his milk ready,” Sam orders, and Steve stands there looking like a ridiculous giant holding a tiny ball of fur. 

Three days later, Steve comes over again, but this time he’s already holding a kitten when he steps over the threshold. It’s mewling, much like Sam’s kitten had, and Sam’s kitten lifts its head and makes small, high-pitched noises in response. “I found him while I was out jogging,” he explains. “I was thinking you could help me take care of him.”

Sam stares at the kitten for a couple seconds before lifting his eyes to Steve. “You name him Eagle and we got ourselves a deal.” Steve nods, amused, and Sam gently takes Eagle from him and carries him over to the other kitten burrowing in blankets on the couch. “Eagle. This is Hawk. You two are gonna be friends.”

* * *

Sharon isn’t that close to them. They see her from time to time as the CIA interferes more and more with Avengers missions. It’s when they’re leaving a former Hydra facility and find her staring them down, orders coming over her walkie to find Rogers and his flying friend, and she calmly answers that she still hasn’t seen them and the CIA might be too late, that Sam starts thinking maybe she might not be so bad as Steve had thought. 

Steve apparently thinks so, too, because he changes their jogging route to cross paths with hers. 

She snorts when she sees them both wearing baseball caps and sunglasses, i.e., their terrible but weirdly effective disguises, but she doesn’t mention them as Steve thanks her.

Instead, she apologizes for having deceived him. Tells them both she’ll help as much as she can. 

Three days later, they’re still on the new jogging route when they find another kitten. Steve runs with it for the next four miles, and Sam and Sharon tease him the whole way. They name the kitten Kite and introduce Kite and Sharon to the other kittens at Sam’s place.

* * *

Sharon shows up on Sam’s doorstep one night, and Steve is right behind her. He shrugs at Sam.

He looks at the kitten in her arms and frowns. “Seriously?”

“I couldn’t help it!” she argues. “She was all alone and running around in the street.”

“And you want me to take care of her now?”

“I’m going out of town,” Sharon says. “I’ll pick her up when I get back.”

But Sharon comes back and ends up spending so much time at Sam’s place watching movies with them and drinking coffee after their morning jog that Osprey becomes a permanent addition.

* * *

“We’re being followed,” Sam says darkly a couple weeks later. 

Steve doesn’t look behind them, but his eyes flick to the side. 

Sharon is more obvious, checking reflections in the shop windows. “I don’t see anybody,” she says.

“Look lower,” Sam tells her. “It’s been tailing us for the past half a mile.”

She looks lower and laughs when she realizes what he means.

This kitten is older, almost an adult, and he follows them all the way to Sam’s house. They give him a little bit of food, and just like that, Harrier becomes part of the group.

* * *

They’re almost at the end before they realize they’ve begun. It starts because they always need someone on hand to stay with the kittens until they’re old enough to take care of themselves, and Sam can’t always be there. Steve or Sharon stay over when Sam is in Ithica. And then as the kittens get older and explore more (and Kite runs fast enough to pull down blinds and Eagle learns how to break into the food bag and Hawk starts biting everything in sight), it turns into a two person job, then three. In time, they’re all collapsing on the couch to pretend to watch a movie when they’re really falling asleep with kittens tucked in around them. They start buying each other’s snacks when they’re at the grocery, looking at each other a little too long as if wondering if the others are looking at them too long. Steve starts getting awkward, as if he isn’t quite sure how to talk to them anymore, and sometimes he’ll say things that sound like they ought to be innuendo but come out horribly wrong. Sharon laughs and gets quiet, smiles nervously but avoids speaking. Sam is the one who takes it upon himself to push that little bit more. A kiss for each of them, on the lips, warm and soft and sweet, and Steve and Sharon both end up staying at his place as if they never think of going anywhere else.


End file.
